


The Empty Tomb

by cheshireArcher



Category: 15th Century CE RPF, Richard II - Shakespeare
Genre: As usual Edward is sad, Christian Imagery, Easter, Gen, Reburial, Richard and his christological imagery is bound to have some sort of followthrough
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 16:03:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14168490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheshireArcher/pseuds/cheshireArcher
Summary: 1413.Henry V reburies Richard II. York deals with the past.





	The Empty Tomb

**Author's Note:**

> An idea I had that I definitely had to try. Richard had a tomb made for himself when Anne died in 1394 but he was originally buried in Kings Langely. Henry V reinterred him in Westminster in 1413. So of course I had to do something about that and Easter. Also I originally wrote this on Tumblr and didn't think to mention that Aumerle's father was buried there too. I do hope to expand it at some point, there's definitely more I can do with this concept given time.

The tomb is empty.

York does not look up when he hears footsteps approaching from behind him.

“Don’t say anything,” York says, voice held steady. He is trying hard not to burst into tears, he has been trying for too long.

The man behind York is silent, though probably not in obedience to him. Why should a king obey a duke.

Why indeed.

“I know why you took him,” York says finally after a sufficiently cold silence has settled around them. “You wanted to do what your father couldn’t.”

“I had my own reasons,” the intruder says, which is not a denial.

“Your father had his reasons too,” York says bitterly. He expects there to be a response along the line of “I am not my father” but no such reply comes. More silence, and he fights back the tears that now seriously threaten to spill.

An answer finally comes from behind him. “I am just following his desires. He wanted to be buried at Westminster.”

“You wanted to show up your father,” York muttered. “Or you wanted to finish things for him.”

“He left things unfinished, yes. But I do this simply to comply with the wishes of our late cousin of Bordeaux.”

How hateful a title sounds when divorced from the man’s name.

“And?” York knows that isn’t all. That’s never all for a Lancaster. “You took him. You took him from me.” He remembers arms wrapped around him, warmth, comfort when he knew the end was near.

“I reburied Richard where he should have been buried in the first place. At Westminster, as befitting a king.”

York cries now. Befitting a king. Richard was once king, then he was nothing and soon after that he was dead. What does the man here know is befitting of a king? He only wears the crown because his father stole it from the man York now mourns.

The man who has stood behind York now steps forward and kneels at the altar next to the duke. Today is the day they remember the resurrection of a King, betrayed and murdered and yet living.

“You took him from me,” York sobs quietly, not looking at the man to his side.

“My father buried him as far away as he could from the throne so he could forget what he had done,” the man says, fixing his eyes on the ornate altar piece in front of them. “He specifically avoided what Richard asked for.”

He falls silent again and all that can be heard in the stone chapel is the quiet weeping of Edward, Duke of York.

“He wanted to be with Anne,” Ned finally says.

“And so he is.” Ned watches the man rise to his feet. King Henry, fifth of that name focuses on the crucifix on the altar.

“He is risen,” says the king.

“He is risen indeed.”


End file.
